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Do you sometimes wonder who is lucky enough to work in MAKESHOP? Well, here is your chance to meet one of our talented makers! Check back every week to meet new people. This week, we introduce you to one of our Teaching Artists, Rebecca! Name: Rebecca How long have you been at Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh? I worked at the prototype MAKESHOP in the summer of 2011, and joined the team again in January 2012. Wh

Robots are a common theme here at MAKESHOP. We have robot sculptures overlooking our area. We live in what is ostensibly the robot capital of America. On her last day, one of our summer interns made a robot pillow to remember us by. Robots are, let’s face it, just plain awesome. Unfortunately, they also get repetitive after a while, which is why I’m always excited to see a new twist on the ‘bot buil

This week Leah Buechley came to visit! It was exciting. A little introduction: Leah Buechley was a major contributor to the development of the Lilypad Arduino, and is a professor at the MIT Media Lab . Her research group… “…integrates high and low technological materials, processes, and cultures. Our primary aim is to engage diverse audiences in designing and building their own technologies by situating c

Our floor loom has been around since we opened MAKESHOP last fall. I’m not sure why it took so long for me to write about it in our blog, but maybe it just took the right visitor to inspire me. “It caught my eye,” is what I was told by one of our teenage visitors. He spent over an hour adding to the scarf project that was currently on the loom. This teenager helped me to reflect on the practices of

Two of my favorite visitors returned to the Museum a couple of days ago and created another amazing project. Their first tinkering, electronic project was dubbed the “Hanna-Occupier”. Their latest project was a motorized car made out of simple, recycled parts. They decided to name it the “Hana-Chaser”. I was excited to collaborate on this great project. Since these were return visitors, both

We are a “kids” museum, so little kids come here every day and play. Adults are allowed…no…encouraged have fun too. Case in point: A dad from California visited the MAKESHOP and had the time of his life. This particular visitor came into our Museum not expecting to have nearly as much fun as he did. He wanted to try to make an electric motorized car. The two of us set out to attempt to make th